Popular video transcoder HandBrake updated to version 1.0 after 13 years in beta

HandBrake has a record of sorts to announce today: After more than 13 years in development the popular video transcoding software is now ready to exit beta with version 1.0.0. That doesn’t mean earlier builds weren’t stable, of course, as it was already the go-to tool for those who want to convert existing video files into space-efficient formats to play on a bunch of devices.

Among the new additions is a set of new video presets for the latest smartphones, tablets, consoles and streaming devices. The app now offers support for Google's VP9 video codec, hardware-accelerated HEVC encoding on Intel Skylake and newer processors, as well as the Opus audio codec.

Video improvements include Auto anamorphic mode, a smarter and more efficient replacement for Strict anamorphic mode, new Decomb/Deinterlace filter settings and improved defaults, the Rotate filter is now available from HandBrake’s GUI, and several performance improvements.

For those that want to rip their DVD collection there’s now the option to select specific DVD titles and chapters to rip, improved subtitle support and the option to queue up multiple encodes. The Windows version also has the option to pause and resume encoding, and if you stop encoding part way through, HandBrake now finalizes the partial file to make it playable.

Handbrake is free, multi-platform (Mac, Windows and Linux) and open-source. You can download the latest version and read the full change log in our downloads section.